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The Ouija board is one of the more modern devices created to assist people in contacting spirits/entities. The earliest model of this modern marvel of spiritual communication was first built by a man named E.C. Reiche from Maryland slightly inspired by an invention of a French spiritualist named M. Planchette. There are two explanations as to why Reiche named his talking board “Ouija” that are still debated until this day. One is that the word “Ouija” represents the French and German words for “yes”-Oui and Ja. The other is that Reiche named it that which he thought was Egyptian for “luck”. Though it is not really Egyptian for luck at all, but he was supposed to have been told by a spirit that it was so. Which is why one of the boards other nick names is “The Luck Board”. Reiche not wanting to make money from his invention but just invented it as a way to communicate with spirits, sold the rights to his invention to his friend who founded a company as a result and made much profit. It was this man Charles Kennard who sold and patent the first of the Ouija boards. Well before this people were commonly using many similar methods of spirit communication but when the Ouija board came out it started a new craze all over the United States. Why had the Ouija board became so popular with the general public? Because we all naturally have an urge to understand more and not everyone has the time or ability to do what’s necessary to follow the many complicated spiritual paths out there. The Ouija board gave the opportunity for even the general public with little or no mediumistic and or psychic experience to get in contact with the spiritual world and other things they never thought possible. The Ouija board started a modern spiritualist craze that swept the world. Whole communities getting together in groups to call upon dead relatives and other entities to ask about their lives and futures. While many experiences turned out to be messages in little meaningless gibberish or nothing at all, there have been few reports over the years that spirits have given good advice about things that have made people profit greatly. Even some of the people involved in the companies that sold the Ouija boards have supposedly gotten messages from spirits that have made their business more successful. And there have also been many reports linked to the Ouija board of demonic/spirit possession and crimes; of trickster spirits ruining people’s lives. Because of this negative side and it’s use of spirit communication in general, certain religious groups have fueled some very negative stereotypes about the device- for example it being linked to the devil and evil. While other spiritualists and occultists contend that it is simply a modern form of a long line of devices made to communicate with spirits and that it can have a bad side as well as good, but that is the risk of the practitioner to take. Many people have taken advantage of this modern spiritualist craze and have come up with many artistic and practical design variations on Reiche’s invention and have gotten very successful. Eventually companies began marketing it as more of a novelty or child’s board game and it became less and less of a spiritual tool and more for entertainment. It began to become all the rage on college campuses, sprouting rumors such as demonic/spiritual possession and causing accidents but most of these reports are most likely to have been over-inflated and misunderstood by over-emotional individuals whose fantasies got out of control. Of course I am not saying that it could not have happened, as some instances most likely have some fact to them but you know how much people’s imaginations can run away with them. Now we come to the practical uses of the board. The common Ouija board is a flat piece wood or cardboard with all the letters of the alphabet printed on it as well as some numbers, and the words “yes” and “no”. Also some have the words “thank you”, “hello” and “good bye” printed on them for common courtesy as it is common practice for many spiritualists to show the spirits some respect for obvious reasons. Usually two or more individuals are seated around the table with their hands placed lightly around a small tablet in the middle of the board. If the practitioners get some sort of sign like the tablet moving seemingly by itself around the board then that is a good indication of an entity being present. By this time one of the individuals will verbally communicate to the entity, or move the tablet around the board to the appropriate combination of letters and numbers asking questions or whatever and the entity will respond by moving the tablet around the board itself to the appropriate combination of letters and numbers. The session could go on like that for a while then the practitioners might end the session with a “thank you” and “good bye”. I have read a few interesting theories about the Ouija board. One of the most prevalent being that with it you can contact spirits with it and even ask them questions about your life and future. Another theory is that with it, you are not actually speaking to spirits but are unconsciously using your own extra sensory perception abilities (ESP) such as precognition, telepathy, telekinesis etc. and to the individual users being unaware of their ESP abilities it may create the illusion of an unseen entity manipulating the board and giving them mysterious messages; that and the users active imagination. I am not sure of what the truth is but I do have a loose theory. It is possible that these 2 explanations both have some truth. I was thinking about it and I came up with this theory which I like: I think maybe that it is not the board itself that is the “gate to the other world” nor is it simply ESP abilities, but the 2 combined. I think that it is the mind that is the “gate to the other world” yet most human beings need the added fantasy of a magical spirit communicator or some other device to more easily focus our abilities and contact the spirit world. I thought of this based on the fact that many religionists use meditation or prayer to be in contact with the deity(ies) they worship/honor/identify with. And what is it that we have physically that is the most likely way to communicate with these entities/deities? Our minds. Our mind, theoretically being the source or simply a way to focus our ESP abilities-In this case possibly clairvoyance or clairaudience. Those are my thoughts on the subject. By Mentor Sethian Post a comment in response: |
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